10/27/12 - Still feeling a strong connection with Manataka from the night before, I decided to visit Hot Springs National Park. 

"The word Manataka has many beginnings, but has only one origin.  

The word Manataka has many definitions, but has only one meaning.

The word Manataka is spoken in many languages, but is of one people."
(More about Manataka below) 

Drove up the mountain to the Bell Tower conservatory to discover that it was way too commercial a scene for me, so then I headed down the mountain to explore the foot paths leading into the park's trails. Because of time constraints in honoring my desire to get on the road to arrive in Oklahoma before dark, I walked only a short ways into the park and realized I wouldn't be able to spend more than 15 minutes there.  I almost talked myself out of going altogether and just head back to my car, but the magnetic pull to to progress into the park was too strong to ignore. 
As I did so, I suddenly felt the presence of spirit guiding me away from the trodden path into a slightly hidden and somewhat private area.
on the other side of this stone wall. 

Mesmerized by the mineral vapors rising, 

 

I heard spirit's voice,

"come crouch down here to commune with the Spirit of Manataka."

I walked around, stabilized my footing and settled onto a small rock ledge. 

  the vapors grew stronger clouding my vision

  enveloped in the power of the mineral vapors

Spirit said, "come closer" - breathe in as deeply as you can.

Listen closely, receive Manataka's messages and the healing for your body.

I leaned over as much as I could looking down into the pit below me

from which the vapors were rising.

 

- It suddenly occurred to me -

I was getting my very own private steam bath

not from the bathhouses, but directly from mama earth
and it felt so good.

(a couple walked by offering to take a photo)

Communing Deeply

 The messages imparted to me from Manataka

were very powerful and a blessing to have received.

Immediately following I felt a stronger, deeper, and fuller connection

with all that I AM and deeply cleansed.

This is a photo I took of myself deeply ingesting Manataka.

Different than the photo before this one, which is a view taken outside myself,

this photo feels like the experience I had from the inside out.

More about Manataka:

 The word Manataka means the "Unbroken Circle"

It was Apache Grandmother Napanee Henrietta Gray Horse who came to Manataka (Hot Springs) in 1927 at age 14 that first told this writer that the name of this these sacred grounds was Manataka. Napanee was the young wife of Chiricahua Chief Benito Altaha Gray Horse. She made her home with Benito in Gulpha Gorge at the foot of the great Manataka mountain until sometime after he stepped  over the stream of life in 1945.  Napanee then built a small shack on the mountain off Sleepy Valley Road and that is where we met years later when she wore white hair and was bent with age.  While among dominant society, Napanee did not use her English first name "Louise" but preferred her middle name, Henrietta that she pronounced it Eh-ni-eeta.   Over a period of several years, Napanee told us many stories about her life with Benito and things she had learned from him, other Indians and spiritual elders who often came to pray at the sacred mountain. Our first discussion about the name of the sacred Valley of the Vapors, began with the words she used to describe water.  We found it curious that she referred to the hot springs that flowed on the other side of the mountain as No-waa-sal-on - Breath of Healing and also called the cold-water stream that flowed in front of her home by the same name.  At the time we thought the name Nowaasalon was a fitting name for the hot waters because the meaning of the word obviously referred to the vapors that escaped from the hot springs -- but the cold water stream emitted no steam -- or Breath of Healing.  s usual, it seemed like an eternity before she answered our question.  We learned it was best to remain patient and respectful while waiting for an answer, even though this wise elder sometimes did not respond to my incessant questions for weeks.  After staring into my eyes for several minutes she responded, "...One of the seven waters of this [cold- water] stream comes from a place of great healing within the Earth Mother...  The other waters [hot springs] heal the body, but these waters heal the spirit," she said.  After a lengthy discussion over a period of several days about how the waters heal the body and spirit, Napanee spoke about the names of other places around the area.  Napanee Louise Henrietta Gray Horse was one of our teachers and guides. The second person to tell us the name of this sacred valley is Manataka was Marcus Phillips, who many years later wrote the "Indian Folk Lore Atlas of Hot Springs National Park" and at age 90 is the current president of the Hot Springs Historical Society.   Marcus was formally adopted by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma in 1991 and later honored by the Choctaw Nation for his work to preserve American Indian history at Hot Springs.  

According to Mr. Phillips, the area of the hot springs was given the name Manataka hundreds, if not thousands of years ago by the people who first discovered this sacred site and long before the first modern tribes of the Caddo, Quapaw, Tunica and Shawnee wandered into this area.  Phillips says, "...Words like Manataka and Nowaasalon became widely used by the many travelers who regularly visited the hot springs."  Mr. Phillips is not certain of the name of the tribe who first named this site Manataka, but is confident that the meaning of the word is the "Place of Peace." 

For the road, I filled up my two drinking canteens with piping hot healing mineral waters. 

 I am now complete and ready to be on my way.